PopHorror Let's Get Scared
Growing up a big girl, I had to deal with my fair share of bullying for not being a “normal” body type. I didn’t look like other girls for most of my life and I paid dearly for that. Given that I’m tall and big boned, I know that even if I tried to conform, I would never be skinny or small; it’s just not my body type. I can live with that, but it felt like others could not and so many liked to remind me of that. This is perhaps why I felt a connection (not like in a serial killer way but in a “I feel you” way) with Frankie Ramirez, the main protagonist in the wild Frankie, Maniac Woman. Co-written by Dina Silva (who also stars as Frankie) and Pierre Tsigaridis (who stars as Jerome) and directed by Pierre, Frankie, Maniac Woman could be seen as a revenge flick, which is not what the filmmakers want because it’s so much more than that. It’s got a much deeper message that hopefully, more people like me will appreciate for its vulnerability and sincerity.
An aspiring LA singer-songwriter confronts childhood trauma, internalized misogyny, and industry fat-shaming until she violently breaks.
To celebrate the release of the film, I chatted with Dina and Pierre about how they met, crafting the message behind the massacre, George Michael, and more!
PopHorror: I loved Frankie, Maniac Woman! It was so good and I had a lot of fun with it so I’m super excited to talk to you guys about it today. I have to say that I can’t blame Frankie one bit for going off and doing what she did.
Dina Silva: Thank you so much, Tiffany! Yes!
Pierre Tsigaridis: Let’s go!
Dina Silva: Let’s go!
PopHorror: You two have been friends for a very long time. Can you tell us a little bit about how you guys met?
Dina Silva: Real quick, can I tell it? Super fast! So Pierre met my friend and he was French, and then my friend was like, “This French guy is going to come to our jam night!” And I was like, “Alright, what’s up French dude?” And he was like, “What’s up? My name is Pierre. I’m French.” And I was like, “Oh, bougie bitch!” Anyways, I was like, I don’t like this guy but then he was playing piano and when he was playing piano I was like, “What’s up, bro? You like George Michael?” He was like, “I love George Michael! He plays the best Christmas song in the world.” I was like, “What you mean?” He was like, “Last Christmas,” and I was like, “Me too! That’s my favorite!” And then boom! Bonded. I was like, “Do you like Christmas?” He’s like, “I love Christmas!” I was like, “Do you like Halloween?” He was like, “I love Halloween! I make horror movies.” I was like, “Really? Because I like horror movies.” Anyways, boom, blossomed. That’s the shortest version of that I’ve ever done.
Pierre Tsigaridis: Yeah, good job! So you could say George Michael, Last Christmas, horror movies.
Dina Silva: Horror movies and then boom, friends.
Pierre Tsigaridis: At a party.
Dina Silva: You have a Frenchman and an autistic person just fucking buddies, bro. That’s crazy.
PopHorror: That’s the best story I’ve ever heard! You both co-wrote the film together. What inspired the story and how did the project come about?
Pierre Tsigaridis: When we became friends, we were playing a lot of music but obviously, Dina was an actress, I was a filmmaker. I was in LA and I had not done anything in LA. I quickly saw that Dina was so talented, not only as a singer but also as an actor so we wanted to do something. We did a comedy web series. It was pretty cool, but we haven’t released it yet. But long story short, we really wanted to make a horror film and since the beginning after bonding over George Michael it was bonding over horror films. We would go to the movies and watch horror films. The project of making a horror film was always there. Making a slasher was pretty much always there too because I feel like that was the subgenre that we had agreed upon doing very early. Then it was just like, what do we do with this? This is where we actually went deep without even necessarily sitting down and saying we’re going to make a deeper movie than we think. Dina was like, “Okay, well I’m the actress of the film,” and I was like, “Well, we’re just going to have you be the killer.” That was the first 10 seconds of coming up with the project so then it was just Dina, if you’re a killer, why would you feel, what’s your motive, what drives you as a killer? And from that, Dina dug deeper into the things in life that bugged her, the things in life that bugged people. Also, it was 2016 LA.
Dina Silva: It was like body positivity was on the rise but it was still mocked. It’s so different than now because that pendulum’s swung to where body positivity is out the door. It’s not cool anymore, which fucking sucks. At that time, I struggled. I was envious, especially of singers who were just more sexy. And also women and dating in your 20s in LA. It’s just… Fuck! So it was this envy towards women and I think it evolved so much more when we started to shoot to where you did see it was the patriarchy pitting us against each other and then having Jerome as my imaginary boyfriend, aka the men in society making me want to kill women, is the issue. The movie became so much more deeper than we intended with such an impactful message, I hope. Some people are going to be like, “You guys are crazy.”
PopHorror: I’m really glad that you brought up the message that’s deeper in the movie because I really felt that. I grew up a large girl and I grew up being bullied, and that’s why I said that I can’t blame Frankie one bit. I’m not going to say that I never thought about it. Who doesn’t?
Dina Silva: Girl, are you kidding me? The only thing that keeps me from doing dumb shit is prison. Of course, all of us have intrusive thoughts. All of us think that all the time.
PopHorror: Give me the purge!
Dina Silva: Yeah, dude!
Pierre Tsigaridis: It’s very human. Like I like to say, Frankie is a very human masked killer. She’s more human than Jason and Michael Myers. Where she comes from is very understandable and that’s our goal. Our goal is, I like to say, to have the audience be able to root for her without feeling too bad about themselves. It’s like a safe place to vicariously experience what it’s like to let go of our own darkest fantasies. Not fantasies but impulses when we are abused in real life.
PopHorror: I love that. My next question is what do you hope people walk away with after watching your film, and basically, it’s a safe space.
Pierre Tsigaridis: One of our first interviews for the film, the interviewer was like, “The bullying is so real.” He could see himself because he was a bigger boy growing up and he was bullied, and he could relate to all of the subtleties of the bullying. Same thing when we were at Panic Fest last week. The voices, “Oh, you’re fat, blah, blah, blah,” a bunch of people came up to Dina and said, “Oh, those voices, I have them in my head.” Not schizophrenic like Frankie is, but the bad little voices that tell you toxic, negative things. Those things, I feel like a lot of people experience them. Like the bullying when Claire says, “Oh, no you can have the pizza now, it’s fine,” meaning you’re fat so you’re a lost cause so you can eat your pizza but the others can’t. These are all real life, horrible social violence. Some of them are subtle. If people can relate to this and say that they’re not alone and this really exists… I think Dina as an actress embodies that.
Dina Silva: I think for me as well, one thing that I want people to take from the film is women on either side of the spectrum being slender and models or what we perceive to be, and bigger women who struggle with weight, struggle with society, we’re all mirrors of each other. In the film, we have Jordan [Kelly DeBarge] playing Celeste and she deals with bulimia and she deals with her beauty being the only thing that’s tangible. A lot of beautiful women I feel like struggle with that mentality of once I get old, I’m done, nobody’s going to want me, my beauty is everything. It’s such a fragile cage to live in. It also mirrors with bigger women, like once I lose weight I will be what I want and that’s never the case. I think women on all kinds of sides are like, well you don’t understand what it’s like to be me. I think we do, we just have to kind of meet in the middle and be like, “I see where you’re coming from and I understand.” Just being more supportive of each other. That’s what we tried to do and I hope that is seen throughout the film because I truly believe that in all the female friendships that I have, it’s so much more than just talking about boys. It’s so much deeper because you get to those points and sometimes with women we have to bypass a lot of the mularkey that comes with female friendship. I just hope they take something like that with them. Skinny queens and big queens, we’re all together, baby. We’re in this fight together.
PopHorror: Yes! I definitely walked away with that. And Dina, I have to say that I really admire the vulnerability that you showed in this film, dealing with bullies and trying to be comfortable in your body while spending a good portion of the film partially nude. To be able to do that and embrace the role, that’s definitely something I’m walking away with. Being a different body type than the person you’re next to, means shit.
Dina Silva: Girl, you know! I didn’t want this to be taken as a fat girl having a revenge on skinny women at all and so when we did the costume for the ending thing… And that’s also like the cowboys and Indians, we did that for a purpose, especially being a Latino and the land, she was taking back against the girls in a way. But anyway, when we did that costume, when I designed it and made it, I was like, I wanted to reveal so much of her body because also at that point in the movie, she is kind of coming out and bursting at the seams. We had a whole scene that we cut where it’s her dancing very sexually by the water.
Pierre Tsigaridis: The scene was really good but…
Dina Silva: It was amazing! But it’s taken me a long time, and it’s still a struggle right now, to embrace my body and to be naked, especially with my boobs. They’re not the biggest and they’re not the most perfect, but when we show it, I’m like, that’s my fucking tit and maybe it’s not the best, but it’s mine. I don’t know. I just want plus sized women… I just wanted Frankie to be very much raw and if she could have been naked, I would have.
Thank you so much to Dina and Pierre for taking the time to chat with us. Frankie, Maniac Woman is in select theaters now!
